On June 14, 2012 Patrick Bristow (Ellen, Showgirls) was a guest on Feast of Fun, a Chicago-based LGBTQ comedy podcast hosted by Fausto Fernós and Marc Felion, to promote Henson Alternative’s Stuffed and Unstrung in Chicago. When the topic came to my work, Bristow said, “this person is a walking work of art”.

The hilarious Patrick Bristow joins us to talk about playing the gay best friend of Ellen DeGeneres’ character on the 90’s sitcom Ellen and also playing Marty Jacobsen, the choreographer in the unintentionally hilarious movie Showgirls.

Now that he’s the host of the hilarious new improv puppet show Stuffed and Unstrung, has the openly gay comedian come full circle?

More from Feast of Fun #1603 – Puppets Gone Wild with Patrick Bristow:

Fausto Ferños: You’ve gotten some really interesting suggestions – one came from our friend that we share in common, Marsian De Lellis..

Patrick Bristow: Mmm-hmmm

Fausto Ferños: ..Puppeteer – He’s the Lady Gaga of puppetry

Patrick Bristow: Oh he’s brilliant!

Fausto Ferños: He pays me to say that.

Patrick Bristow: Oh it’s the truth.

Fausto Ferños: He is the Lady Gaga of puppetry – and he was in New York City seeing your show and what did he say to you?

Patrick Bristow: Oh I called out for a suggestion – This is the first time I ever met the man – And I said – What’s the suggestion for the next scene I don’t know what I was asking for, and from the front row, I hear, “sticky Bible” and I pause and I went, “excuse me?” and he goes, “sticky Bible” and the audience is laughing cause it’s just such a hilarious mis-mash of words and I went – “Oh, okay” and we did the improv and I’m sure it was hilarious. And I saw him after the show cause I’m sure he had some mutual friends and stuff. And I’m just like – this person is a walking work of art.

Fausto Ferños: He’s the modern day Truman Capote.. And he actually has memoirs, like he’s been keeping a diary and journal for years when he went through art school when he had this one teacher that was putting pressure on all the students to either do porn or get a sex-change.

Patrick Bristow: Oh I love teachers like that… How many have you had? I’ve had three.

Marc Felion: My economics professor was much like that.

Patrick Bristow: Mmm Hmm..

Marc Felion: One of those..

Fausto Ferños: And so he actually has these amazing stories and I’ve been trying to get him to work with a publisher.. Or you’ve actually been teaching him..

Patrick Bristow: ..improv – Yeah and he’s hilarious.

Fausto Ferños: And so like what kind of advice do you give someone like Marsian whose such a – I mean our listeners know him very well.

Patrick Bristow: Oh great!

Fausto Ferños: Yeah so, what kind of advice do you give someone?

Marc Felion: Yeah – read that queen!

Patrick Bristow: Well I mean first off, when you have someone who already knows their voice as an artist already, as a teacher you’re just kind of like preparing them how to apply it. And since improv is typically a much more of a commercial endeavor not as artistic you know in the cutting edge shock of the new way that he works – right? That it’s almost like taking a wild pony and saying “Okay, I’m going to put a saddle on you and you’re going to run around an oval track” – You know? So I try to give him the benefits of that discipline – of that kind of structure and still encourage him to be Marsian. He does some wild characters that your listeners probably wouldn’t expect to be coming out of him. He’s got a lot more range than he always shows. He’s really super talented. I’m really excited to see what he is going to do.